The Tokugawa Shogunate and the Kyoto Aristocracy

The Tokugawa Shogunate, once securing its dominance of Japan's political life, is now reeling. The Emperor and the Imperial Court have begun to re-emerge into the nation's political life. That re-emergence is driven on the one hand by a growing movement of imperial loyalism among lower-ranking samurai. On the other, members of the Kyoto aristocracy are increasingly politicized.